How much to do in a Daily Review

[Mike Simms]

There is the idea, confirmed by more that one post in these forums, that it can take up to an hour a day to process all the new inputs just for a single day. I have a kind of muddle in my mind between the regular capture phase in the main Weekly Review and the "hour at day" for collecting.
Do you folks have a clear idea as to how much to do within this hour? I guess the following are self-evident example:
- an email confirming a date and time of a meeting/conference call/children's party: add the date to your calendar
- a bill: file the bill in the appropriate place.
But once things start getting more nebulous, they become a "Think about ..." and go onto your next actions list - but yet some investigation in the moment may be necessary (so that you can let your subconscious work in it in the meantime) do you get into it there and then or do you leave it for the weekly review?
I guess the answer is "it depends" but do you have a set of criteria to decide what sorts of things need to be more fully processed each day and which can be left until the weekly review?

(Put another way, if you fully processed every item every day then you would need to do the weekly review??? I say this deliberately to provoke discussion!)

 

[kelstarrising]

(Put another way, if you fully processed every item every day then you would need to do the weekly review??? I say this deliberately to provoke discussion!)

If you were truly capturing/clarifying/organizing everything day to day, you’re right, you wouldn’t have much to do by the time the Weekly Review rolls around (the Get Clear steps.). There may still be an opportunity though to see what else is there during those steps—particularly Mind Sweep. For example, I almost never go into my a Weekly Reviews with any backlog in any inboxes. I get it all to zero nearly every day. But I can often find some lingering scraps on my mind that the Weekly Review has a unique way of shaking loose through the Mind Sweep Trigger lists from the book.

And remember, the Get Clear steps are just one part of the Review. There are 8 more steps under Get Current and Get Creative.

 

[Julie_Flagg]

I use my daily review the night before to confirm early morning meetings, surgeries, when I start back seeing patients in the office and check about evening / dinner commitments and check that something hasn't been added in or removed from the schedule- let my spouse know when I am going to be home and find out when and where she is going to be during the day. I check the weather and plan to take my bike or car. I may make some changes ie plan to meet or call comebody, especially if there is an "evolving story"- something that may be morphing into a project or just need attention or an "are you OK call". Finally, I do the tumi bag checklist and put it by the door. I sleep better this way - I can anticipate the tight spots and adjust as needed during the day. My chargers will be in the bag! I am good to go. This process takes less than 3-4 minutes at night generally when I am toast.

 

[Mike Simms]

Thanks for your answers, I have been trying to go through my main inputs more regularly and I think the conclusion is this: in the daily review, each item (if I need to keep it at all) has to get at least a little bit beyond 'capture' - it must make it onto:
- a next action list, if the action is reasonably obvious in the moment
- a project list, if the next action is not obvious, even if it is only "Worry about X" - I will give it due time during the weekly review
- or simply a store it - on a calendar, or in reference.

The metaphor that comes to mind is that an item is not fully in your system if it is still in your capture inbox, in the way that biologists consider that the food in your stomach is not actually considered 'inside the body' until it is absorbed.

 

[vino]

Currently, I have a tag "Urgent" for all the tasks that need to be reviewed daily. All other tasks can wait till the weekly review. This way, there is only 10-20 tasks that need next actions urgently and can't wait till the weekly review. The downside, to this approach is I end with with a long list for weekly review. The list itself looks daunting and I end up procrastinating the weekly review.

This is interesting topic. As a novice to GTD, I am gaining valuable insights from the discussions.

 

[Oogiem]

I guess the answer is "it depends" but do you have a set of criteria to decide what sorts of things need to be more fully processed each day and which can be left until the weekly review?

(Put another way, if you fully processed every item every day then you would need to do the weekly review??? I say this deliberately to provoke discussion!)

I'm not really understanding the question. For me processing requires that I fully decide whether the item in question goes in a someday/maybe lists, or gets added to an existing project or becomes a project in an of itself.

For example, Here is one from today, I met a professor at the Wool Growers meeting doing a parasite drug resistance study. I asked if he needed more flocks to participate. He said email him this week and he'd let me know. In my misc. actions went a note to send him an e-mail in context Computer Internet. I did that yesterday. I didn't create a project yet because until I heard back there might not be a project.

So today one of my e-mails was from him, he does have the funds to add us as a test flock but there are requirements for sample collection, definition of test-eligible sheep, etc. He sent me a document with the experiment protocol and asked me to be sure I could do it before he gives the go ahead. As part of processing his e-mail I printed out the list of requirements and started a project "Participate in the Dewormer Study?" by creating an electronic folder in DEVONThink, a project in Omnifocus with a first next action of read protocol for the study and a second next action of determine whether we have test eligible sheep and the time to do the work and a paper folder of Dewormer Study into which I filed the testing protocol. Total time to process took about 3 minutes but it's now all done.

I'll still need to review this project at my weekly review to see where I am with it and whether it's going forward or not. So fully processing any given item doesn't meant I don't have something to process at weekly review.